Derby murder dates back to 2009 attempted hit

Michael P. Mayko

Updated 10:07 pm, Wednesday, April 2, 2014

MILFORD --A failed assassination attempt in Derby, a fight at a Seymour gas station and a perceived insult all played a role in the murder of Javon Zimmerman, a police detective testified Wednesday in state Superior Court.

"The street knows what happened," said Derby Detective Sgt. John Netto, who spent several years investigating drug gangs as part of the joint Valley Street Crime Unit. "You'll get the who and the what. What you have to do is find the why and the how."

So Netto took information provided him and checked Cordaryl Silva's Facebook page, where he found what he called "a blueprint of his life ... a diary," which he believes details the dispute in curse-laden "urban vernacular."

"This is their life, their daily routine," the sergeant said. "This is what they live and breathe."

But Zimmerman, who with his brothers Roosevelt and Keyshon, headed an Ansonia drug dealing operation, is no longer breathing. And Silva, who Netto said feels he and his brother were disrespected, is on trial for murder -- accused of gunning down Zimmerman outside R.J.'s Cafe on Derby's Elizabeth Street on May 12, 2012.

In one Silva allegedly wrote, "Everyone's got a breaking point. I'm at mine."

He cursed when writing about taking others "with me" for "destroying the people I love," and he wrote about getting a tetanus shot after being bitten by Zimmerman.

Netto said all this anger dates back to Aug. 25, 2009, when Steven Cook, Silva's half-brother, participated with two other men in an attempt to kill Kierron Stanley, 35 on Chapel Street in Derby.

The trio rammed their stolen car into Stanley's sport-utility vehicle and shot him seven times, but failed to kill him. The attack is believed to have been retaliation for Keyshon Zimmerman being shot in the face nine days earlier.

Cook, who was part of the Zimmerman crew at that time, is serving a 10-year prison term.

Netto said Silva's Facebook's postings bolster what the police investigation determined -- that Silva was upset with the Zimmerman crew for not sending money to Cook's prison commissary account.

About three weeks before the murder, Silva and Zimmerman got into fight at a Seymour gas station. During the incident, Zimmerman bit Silva so severely on the stomach that the defendant had to go to the hospital for treatment.